I have been informed by NSW Department of Fair Trading that a Bill has been introduced to NSW Parliament this month to postpone the commencement of the building defect rectification and bond scheme from 1 July 2017 to 1 January 2018.
The deferral of the commencement of the building defect bond scheme appears to be due to the delay in preparation of the new national Australian standard which will form part of the defect inspection report under the scheme.
NSW Fair Trading noted that public feedback on the 1 July 2017 commencement date has revealed industry concerns that participants have not been provided with enough time to develop their supporting processes and procedures prior to the commencement date of 1 July 2017.
SCA (NSW) representatives were working on the Australian Standards committee and were confident that a suitable document which can be utilised for the scheme was able to be delivered by the original scheme commencement date and that other relevant measures can be taken to implement an effective scheme.
Further delay of the implementation of the scheme will see a large part of this current construction cycle miss being captured and we will continue to work with NSW Fair Trading to ensure the strata industry feedback is provided to this critical consumer rights scheme.
SCA (NSW) continue to seek that stamp duty proceeds be applied appropriately to strata schemes regardless of the number of levels, by pursuing home warranty insurance for all sized residential strata schemes. We also continue to press for a more appropriate statutory warranty owed by the builders and developers, as 2 years for the great majority of defects is clearly not enough.
Chris Duggan
President
SCA (NSW)